Sporting Kc played a dirty, sloppy and hard-fought game against the Philadelphia Union in a midweek league game at PPL Park, and most importantly, walked away with a well deserved point. Now Sporting Kc find themselves with only 5 road games left in the entire season and 14 points through 14 games.
The First Half
Peter Vermes fielded a lineup that was somewhat identical to the one we saw at home on Friday night against the San Jose earthquakes, the two biggest changes were Cesar coming in at CB for the suspended Collin, and Bunbury in for Sapong, which was a surprise to say the least.
Sporting started the game relatively well, Kamara and Bravo had some early looks but both shots were off target. Then Philly got going and created some of their own chances, but none of them were converted.The high-pressure system that Philly used for much of the half was just a taste of what was to come for KC. Not much more to the first half than that, Bunbury was again trying to do it all by himself, and Cesar looked a little off balance. It was a really sloppy game from Sporting and Philly, but the latter looked by far the better team.
The Second Half
Sporting Kc made one change coming out of the halftime break. Sapong on for Bunbury, something that most fans were pleased with. Bunbury just hasn't looked himself these past couple of games, and I believe Sapong should have started.
Sporting Kc came out with more intent in the second half but played with a lot less pressure than they did in the first. Mainly due to Vermes wanting to get something out of this game, a point at least. But Philadelphia showed why they're second place in the Eastern Conference and created A LOT of chances. One of those chances nearly payed off in the 72' minute when Sassano failed to close down Le Toux from a couple yards outside KC's box and the ensuing cross from Le Toux was nearly turned in by the unmarked head of Ruiz, but the crossbar came to Sporting's rescue once again. The last 20 minutes of the game Sporting Kc dropped almost all 11 men behind the ball to try and stop any attack from Philly. Hence, the Union went on to record 26 shots but only 7 of those were on target as compared to Sporting's 8 shots, out of those 0 were on target. But Sporting Kc did hold on, mainly due to the fact that Nielsen was a beast all night.
They earned a very valuable point on the road, and are now unbeaten in 6 games.
Player Ratings
Nielsen 8*, Myers 6, Besler 6, Cesar 7, Sinovic 5, Sassano 6, Diop 6, Arnaud 6, Bravo 5, Kamara 6, Bunbury 4.
Subs: Sapong 6, Harrington 6, Auvray N/A.
*Denotes Man Of the Match
No comments:
Post a Comment